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Below are two of the three remaining contestants. Each has been nominated by at least one judge to be eliminated from the contest. I will post the criteria they were given and the submissions that they created. Your job, adoring public, is to vote for the submission you felt was WORST. The person with the most votes will then be eliminated from this year's competition.

EVERYONE is encouraged to join and vote. That includes previous contestants, current contestants, those who didn't participate before, and the judges.

[color=purple]Round 9 Criteria[/color]:And then there were none... I mean three. (Too much Agatha Christie of late.) A lot of interesting designs come in threes. The game usually produces cycles horizontally across the colors, but the rarities have been used as an equal format for connected designs. The fun of this round will be doing both.

Assignment:Design a vertical cycle (that is, one common, one uncommon, one rare). Each card in this cycle should be a single color, but each part of the cycle should be a different color. Your overall design will be showing the evolution of an idea (whatever idea you choose, no card-type restrictions) from one color to another to the next, while simultaneously creeping up in rarity. Your theme can be whatever you choose, as long as we can see how it grows.

Miscarriage of JusticeInstantPut Miscarriage of Justice and target instant or sorcery spell on top of their owner's libraries.Each player fateseals 3."The appeal is dismissed. This court finds that the plaintiff and defendant have been treated equally... and what is justice but applied equality?"

Unfair Trade SorceryFateseal 3 and scry 3.Each player draws three cards."What are you bellyaching about? Your half of the goods look just fine to me."

Demon of Iniquity Creature - DemonWhen Demon of Iniquity enters the battlefield, you draw three cards and target opponent discards three cards. Then each player may cast an instant or sorcery card in his or her hand without paying its mana cost.Flying"Contract has two definitions: to bargain, and to reduce in size. You see by the asterisk here that I mean both."8/5

The intent here (besides the unfairness theme) is to make a sort of loose thematic loop that goes spell (counter) -> fateseal (scry) -> draw (discard) -> spell (counter) etc. Also the costs double and the effects get less and less equal as you move from white to black.

Student's Scroll - Artifact {C}Sacrifice Student's Scroll: Add to your mana pool. The use of scrolls at the academy is two-fold - the teaching of basic artisan skills; and allowing the students to access workable power without overwhelming their tiny brains.

Break Cover | Instant {C}Return target permanent you control to your hand. Add one mana of any color that permanent is to your mana pool.Sometimes you just have to get out with what you have.

Crystallise Mana | Enchantment {C}Sacrifice Crystallise Mana: Add to your mana pool.The practice of mana crystallisation is used by Masters to teach students the handling of power before tapping the potentially wild flows of more reliable sources.

Ravage | Sorcery {U}Destroy target land and add to your mana pool. If that land was non-basic, add an additional to your mana pool."This city is like an apple in the hands of a ravenous troll. It requires care to ensure the seeds are planted, and not consumed." - Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Unravel | Instant {C}Destroy target enchantment. Add two mana in any combination of colors that enchantment is to your mana pool."The shamans forget that their gildings are mana constructs like any other. Show them it's to better use it."Fanatical Preacher | Creature - Viashino Cleric {U}HasteSacrifice Fanatical Preacher: Fanatical Preacher deals 2 damage to each blocking creature.When Fanatical Preacher dies, add to your mana pool.He gladly is the match that looses the Glory of creation.2/2

Soulsnare Shaman | Creature - Elf Shaman {R}, Sacrifice a creature: Add the sacrificed creature's mana cost to your mana pool. (Mana cost includes color)."The eyes certainly are the window to the soul, but for a really good look I find it best to get them out of the way."2/2

Imidazoline InjectionTribal Instant - Chirurgeon (C)Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all numbers with 2 until end of turn. (This effect doesn't affect mana costs, power or toughness.)"The patient's blood pressure appears to be completely stable, sir."

Razor-borne InfectionTribal Instant - Chirurgeon (u)Change the text of target creature by replacing all instances of that card's name with "each creature". (This effect lasts indefinitely.)"This is an unacceptable breach of hygiene. Not only did you lose the patient, you spread his sepsis to Fiefward Three!"

Detector Inspection Tribal Instant - Chirurgeon (R)Change the text of target artifact by replacing all instances of instances of "Sacrifice" with "Tap", all instances of with , or all instances of mana costs with . (This effect lasts indefinitely.)"Our scans have revealed a beeble-shaped tumour in the left hemisphere. Either an immediate operation is necessary, or something is terribly wrong with the apparatus."

Miscarriage of JusticeInstantPut Miscarriage of Justice and target instant or sorcery spell on top of their owner's libraries.Each player fateseals 3."The appeal is dismissed. This court finds that the plaintiff and defendant have been treated equally... and what is justice but applied equality?"

Unfair Trade SorceryFateseal 3 and scry 3.Each player draws three cards."What are you bellyaching about? Your half of the goods look just fine to me."

Demon of Iniquity Creature - DemonWhen Demon of Iniquity enters the battlefield, you draw three cards and target opponent discards three cards. Then each player may cast an instant or sorcery card in his or her hand without paying its mana cost.Flying"Contract has two definitions: to bargain, and to reduce in size. You see by the asterisk here that I mean both."8/5

The intent here (besides the unfairness theme) is to make a sort of loose thematic loop that goes spell (counter) -> fateseal (scry) -> draw (discard) -> spell (counter) etc. Also the costs double and the effects get less and less equal as you move from white to black.

I'm both chaotic and orderly. I value my own principles, and am willing to go to extreme lengths to enforce them, often trampling on the very same principles in the process. At best, I'm heroic and principled; at worst, I'm hypocritical and disorderly.

Detektor's cards all read "target game stops being fun" to me, so I had to vote for him. Imi's cards look like they may be on the "nuts" end of the power curve, but I think his core idea is sound in a way that Detektor's is not.

this is a little awkward as a contestant, but here goes. I agree with Mown that, in the context of a set, you would never notice that either of these were a cycle. therefore, we can ignore that and look at the individual cards.

I think that Imi's cards had a lot more basic flaws, like the preacher's mana being hard to access unless you're willing to just waste his ability outside of combat, or unravel being probably pretty underpowered compared to naturalize. but I think the flaws Detek's had were much more severe where they existed, amounting often to, as Turnip said, "target game stops being fun." the Miscarriage especially is just brutal on the enjoyment aspect of the game. it's tahnargth's glare, except you never get the cards they don't want you to have, and it's card neutral (it stops their spell) so it's easier to run, which is a bad thing for blatant griefer cards. Unfair Trade is the best of the bunch, I worry about the power, but even giving them three crappy cards is still a relevant drawback. the demon comes out so late that it can get away with being that funsmashingly crazy, but even then, it feels lackluster. as one of the judges (Kavu I think) pointed out, your opponent will rarely have more than three cards anyway by that point, so they wind up with nothing. also on top of that, that seems like the only goal, since, if they have four cards, they still get to cast their best instant or sorcery, they just discard everything else. so the two part look connected in ways they really aren't. maybe if the discard was at random it'd be better. but then that'd be even worse in other ways. there's also the issue of pay 8 to cast a spell for free.

this is a hard call, and I'd be tempted to let it be swayed by who I'd rather face in the finals, but I don't want to face either of you in the finals, so I'm gonna vote to eliminate both of you and declare me the winner of everything. I can do that, right? no? fine, I think I have to vote for Detek. sorry bro.

Detektor's submission has the redeeming quality of having Miscarriage of Justice in it, which is a flat-out really awesome design. The other cards were good designs, but not spectacular. They were really average. And I agree with Raze and Mown that they aren't very recognizable as a cycle.

Imidazoline's cards lacked that flair that Miscarriage of Justice had, and suffers from the same problems that the rest of Detektor's submission had. So, sorry Imid, but I voted for you.

...

Raze, your submission was awesome, by the way. I particularly enjoyed the blue common. The effect is definitely very blue, very common, but still super excellent. Unless if the other finalist proves otherwise, you have my vote for the final.

Raze, your submission was awesome, by the way. I particularly enjoyed the blue common. The effect is definitely very blue, very common, but still super excellent. Unless if the other finalist proves otherwise, you have my vote for the final.

I feel as though I should have some sort of bonus because only one judge picked me.

you do. you have one less vote.

True, but the judges' opinions could have affected voters if they were included as part of the OP.

If you want my real opinion then it's "I honestly don't know".I'm not participating in the voting this time, because I really can't choose one and say that I think I made the right choice. As I said, it's more about what part of the criteria I put an emphasis on.

I voted Detektor. His cards were interesting to an extent, but I do find fault with the demon and the whole discard thing being underwhelming. The common, however, really doesn't feel common at all and that's something I feel Imi did a lot better. Plus, his rare was actually pretty cool.

CKY, magicpablo666 and Dinobeer combined ingenuity and silliness to win a Summer fUn contest each!
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CityofAs pranced masterfully to victory in Skipping Merrily!
ConfusedAsUsual conquered both tropes and opponents to ascend in Metafiction!
FirstTurnKill condensed Success into Art form in Summing it Up!

I'm both chaotic and orderly. I value my own principles, and am willing to go to extreme lengths to enforce them, often trampling on the very same principles in the process. At best, I'm heroic and principled; at worst, I'm hypocritical and disorderly.